Per my needle I have lost about 1.5 lbs of boost. I was wondering if there was anyway to check for leaks?

Background - Installed a 15lb VDO Boost guage way back. Max boost read was between 14-15 lbs which from my understanding was perfect considering I'm running a 15 pulley (max. boost would be 14.5lbs).

From the guage install I have - 1) swapped from stock IC to GTT IC 2) then swapped rubber stock boots for a set of Mini Madness boots 3) then swapped GTT IC for a DFIC using the mini madness boots.

Because the guage and the IC touches on boost, I am suspect but the guage connections look good. The rubber boots look good too.

Is there a way to test of check for leaks?

Could it be something else?

 

Others are smarter than me, but is it possible that the pressure of the air charge in the DFIC is lower, but the volume is higher and the temperature is lower, so that overall you have a better intake?

cheers,

 

The last time I lost 1.5 lbs of boost, it was one of my best mods - a custom, highflow exhaust. So, as Phil alludes, this could be a good thing. If using your DFIC bungs, check those connections, and if not, back-out those plugs, and teflon tape them as an added precaution...

Gauges tend not to be as accurate at their limits, but I doubt that would be the cause here though...

I sort of recall you having a G-Tech, but maybe I'm wrong. If so, do hp, torque, 0-60, 1/4 mile runs etc...

I was a bit bummed when I lost boost with my exhaust, but when I immediately turned faster times on a canyon route, I was quite happy.

Mine is suppose to arrive later today!

 

That would be fine and my paranoia would come to an end.

Reflecting back, just before swapping out the GTT, I had lost 0.5 lbs of boost and the only variable there were the boots thus the paranoia.

 

I did some Gtech runs when I put on the DFCI - the car feels strong. The guage has been dead accurate - reading 14.5lbs with a 15 pulley. It would be great if Matt confirms when he tests the DFIC that there is a pressure difference. I would love to hear that its not some problem.

If I'm suspect of something it would be the boots (mini madness hard ones). The question is how can you test the seals? I guess the answer is just to pick up another set of boots.

PS - once you get the dfic installed - check your guage and report back ~!!!

 

Sounds like to me its a pressure drop due to a different IC.

 

Given the feel of the car after the install, the SOP evidence supports the idea but I'm with you Bart, I know you would like something more quantifiable than SOP. It will be interesting to see what others find as they install their DFIC's. Hope to see mine next week.

P.S. Did you use the GTT boots?

 

62, are you in the Atlanta area?

My DFIC arrived at Harrison on Friday afternoon, but unfortunately I didn't expect it until Monday, so there it sits!

If you live in Atlanta, maybe we (you, SpiderX, & me) should meet sometime.

I thought I understood that you had a M7 head coming as well.

Sorry for the hijack!

 

I see you live in Florida. You may find that with the bigger IC, air temp, density, etc, will have a much greater effect on boost. It does on a SC drag car & there is no IC. It's been real hot here untill yesterday & my car certinaly feels a lot better ( for that mater so do I ).

 

The stock boots get stretched very easily...... I went through this... took off my stock.. then the Alta.... could not find a leak and the idle was good but lost some boost .... put on new boots and things were back to normal..... the boots just are not meant to take on and off .... at least mine did not survive

 

At the time they were not available so I picked up a set from MiniMadness.

 

At idle is there a way to check the boot seals? is there enough pressure or vaccum for that matter to use a wet rag to try and get the old bubbles?

 

And that would be fine by me and I write the whole thing off as guage paranoia. Perhaps the best pressure "check" would be to go back to the jiggly (.y.) bar.

 

visual inspection showed the boots just looked stretched out and a good seal was questionable..... if there is a big vac leak you would know it

 

Yeah, im pretty sure thats what it sounds like, because like noted above. If there was a Vac leak you would deff know it because the car would run like pure crap. And the fact that you are only seeing 1.5lbs of pressure drop, a bigger IC will make it do that, but makes up for it by making the charge air more dense.

 

how is it running? do you like the DFIC?

 

The car feels strong and I like the DFIC / scoop very much.

I think it is very well made and "fits" the car nicely. For me the decision of going to the DFIC was mostly do to the concept (i.e. vertical IC as opposed to horizontal. My primary issue with the horizontal IC was that I was not getting the best seal to the hood and thus losing cooling potential. I overly fiddled with this aspect. I think the DFIC addresses this simplistically well.

While I did go out and Gtech the car, I was not comfortable posting comparative data because of differences in place, temp and cool down periods. My take is that the DFIC seems to quickly address heat soak for the car seemed to be equally strong from pull to pull. My take is that it out performs horizontal IC units at low or moderate speeds. By that I mean it starts to worker sooner (at lower speeds) than the horizontals. At high speeds, i think they all work well.

There are other factors but we need M7 to get one to MATT who I think can present meaningful data.

 

My AutoMeter boost gauge, I think like most, or at least some, records peak boost. I have not been near that in like over 2 years - 16.5 lbs.

Tonight I finally cleared that from memory so I can start from scratch. Since the time I got 16.5 lbs of max boost, I added a 2% crank pulley, which should make it go up... however, as I shared earlier, I also added the custom straight 2.5" catback, and most recently a ceramic-cated SS header, with stock cat.

After some serious canyon driving early this evening, I returned home to see that my peak was at exactly 15 lbs. Ambient temps, per MINI, was from 73-76 F throughout the 20 min run. I noted this for replication purposes...

I also used my CarChip E/X to log data, including IAT, among other variables. I will download that data later. It only logs every 5 seconds, but since I was at WOT quite a bit, I will have some high IATs captured over that 20 minute period.

The DFIC didn't arrive today... but once it does, I will do the same. It sounds like I should expect a pretty good drop in boost, and with the baseline that I have, it will be easy to note this aspect.

Personally, I would love to have a faster car with less boost! We shall see...

 

I went from 18psi to 15 after lossin my motor.

 

 

I just checked the boots....passenger side has oil on the outside.

 

Have you done any measurements in peak boost with the DFIC installed?

I've just installed a boost gauge, and my peak boost seems to be at 12psi, with an ambient temperature of 75 degrees (didn't measure humidity). There's a kink in the hose right behind the boost gauge, so I'm going to obtain a 90-degree elbow to try to route that properly. Just thought I'd see what other people are getting as peak boost with the DFIC installed. Thanks!

 

I provided some info on this topic in a thread or two here, somewhere...

I reset my boost gauge's memory recently, but already have 15+ lbs recorded. I also have a 15 + 2 pulley set-up...

 

You'd know if there was a serious leak. I saw a mini at a track day last year who's IC boot had split. The car was revving and dropping back to idle repeatedly on its own accord. Didn't sound very healthy. Obviously the computer was trying to compensate for the loss of pressure at idle...